Richard Wüerst was a German composer, music professor and pedagogue. Wüerst was born and died in Berlin. He was a pupil of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen at the Akademie der Künste and a pupil of Felix Mendelssohn's. He later taught in the conservatory of Theodor Kullak (what would soon become the Stern Conservatory) and edited the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung (from 1874–75). One of his notable students was Heinrich Hofmann.